ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Environmental Informatics and Remote Sensing
Seasonal Dynamics and Spatial Heterogeneity of Vegetation Recovery Around Power Transmission Facilities in North China
Lei Wang 1
Wei Yan 2
Kun Song 3
Xiaolin Wu 4
Zhiyong Xu 4
1. State Grid Liaoning Electric Power Company Limited, Liaoning, China
2. Electric Power Construction Technical Economic Consulting Center of China Electricity Council, Beijing, China
3. State Grid Liaoning Electric Power Company Limited Economic Research Institute, Shenyang, China
4. State Grid Liaoning Electric Power Company Limited, Shenyang, China
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Abstract
Introduction: Power facility construction significantly disturbs surrounding ecosystems, and vegetation recovery in temperate regions follows distinct seasonal rhythms whose characterization is essential for informed ecological management. This study aims to quantify seasonal vegetation dynamics around a 500 kV transmission corridor in North China, characterize spatial heterogeneity patterns across disturbance gradients, and elucidate the climate-driven mechanisms governing these processes. Methods: A typical 500kV transmission corridor in North China (2024-2025) was selected, integrating MODIS MOD13Q1 data (250m, 16-day), Landsat 8 imagery (30m), meteorological data, and ground validation. The study area was divided into Tower Base Zone (TBZ), Transmission Corridor Zone (TCZ), and Reference Zone (RZ). Vegetation recovery status was quantified using fractional vegetation coverage (FVC), aboveground biomass (AGB), and Shannon diversity index. Two-way ANOVA, redundancy analysis (RDA), and Geodetector model were employed to analyze driving mechanisms. Results: Vegetation recovery showed significant seasonal rhythms: summer NDVI (0.58-0.72), biomass (180-265 g/m²), and Shannon index (1.58-2.05) were 2.8, 9.5, and 3.6 times higher than winter values, respectively. Spatial heterogeneity exhibited a stable gradient (RZ>TCZ>TBZ), with reference zone NDVI 23-38% higher than tower base zone, showing largest difference in winter (55.6%) and smallest in summer (24.1%). Spring greening rate in TBZ was only 58% of RZ and delayed by 7-10 days; autumn NDVI declined at -0.012 to -0.015/day. Precipitation-season interaction explained 89.4% of vegetation dynamics, with precipitation contributing 42.3% and interaction q-value reaching 0.82. Marginal contribution rate of precipitation was 65-75% in spring-summer. This is a provisional file, not the final typeset article Discussion: Vegetation recovery around power transmission facilities is jointly regulated by phenological rhythms, resource availability, and disturbance patterns, exhibiting season-space coupled dynamics. These findings support a seasonal adaptive management framework encompassing spring seeding, summer optimized clearing, autumn litter protection, and winter evaluation, with MODIS seasonal monitoring integrated into ecological early warning systems.
Summary
Keywords
climate drivers, ecological monitoring, MODIS remotesensing, seasonal dynamics, Spatial heterogeneity, Transmission corridor, Vegetation recovery
Received
28 January 2026
Accepted
19 February 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Wang, Yan, Song, Wu and Xu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Lei Wang
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